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PUBLICATIONS OF THE GENERAL 
EDUCATION BOARD 



OCCASIONAL PAPERS, No. 2 

CHANGES NEEDED IN 

AMERICAN SECONDARY 

EDUCATION 



BY 



CHARLES W. ELIOT 



GENERAL EDUCATION BOARD 

^BOADWAT New Yobs City 

1016 



!Sonograpli 



PUBLICATIONS 

OF THE 

GENERAL EDUCATION BOARD 

sent on request 

The General Education Board: An account of 

its Activities 1902-1914. Cloth, 254 pages, with 
32 full-page illustrations and 31 maps. 

Public Education in Maryland, By Abraham 
Flexner and Frank P. Bachman. Paper or 
cloth, 196 pages, illustrated. 

OCCASIONAL PAPERS 

1. The Country School of To-morrow, By Fred- 
EKJCK T. Gates. Paper, 15 pages. 

2. Changes Needed in American Secondary 
Education, By Charles W. Eliot. Paper, 29 
pages. 

IN PRESS 

Report of the Secretary of the General Educa- 
tion Board, 1914-1915. 

A Modem School, By Abraham Flexner. 



LA 2?2 

CHANGES NEEDED IN 

AMERICAN SECONDARY 

EDUCATION 

BY 
CHARLES W. ELIOT 

THE prevailing programmes in American secondary schools 
contain many valuable features. It is the purpose of this 
essay to set forth certain much-needed amendments of these 
programmes. 

The best part of all human knowledge has come by exact and 
studied observation made through the senses of sight, hearing, 
taste, smell, and touch. The most important part of education 
has always been the training of the senses through which that best 
part of knowledge comes. This training has two precious results 
in the individual besides the faculty of accurate observation — one 
the acquisition of some sort of skill, the other the habit of careful 
reflection and measured reasoning which results in precise statement 
and record. 

A baby spends all its waking time in learning to use its senses, 
and to reason correctly from the evidence of its senses. At first, it 
reaches after objects near by and far off alike, but gradually learns 
to judge by the eye whether or not it can reach the object seen. 
It tries to put everything into its mouth, perhaps in an effort to 
estimate size and shape correctly — which at first it cannot ac- 
complish by the eye alone as the adult does, nor satisfactorily to 
itself even by the hand — or else to renew some of the agreeable 
sensations as to flavor or texture which it has already experienced, 



k 



4 

or possibly to rub its gums against something which feels cool and 
smooth. The baby's assiduity in observation and experimenta- 
tion, and the rapidity of its progress in sense-training are probably 
never matched in after life. Its mind is also trained fast; because 
it is constantly practising the mental interpretation of the phenom- 
ena which its senses present to it. 

The boy on a farm has admirable opportunities to train eye, 
ear, and hand ; because he can always be looking at the sky and the 
soils, the woods, the crops, and the forests, having familiar inter- 
course with many domestic animals, using various tools, listening 
to the innumerable sweet sounds which wind, water, birds, and 
insects make on the countryside, and in his holidays hunting, fish- 
ing, and roaming. 

Increasing skill in the use of the hands and fingers has un- 
doubtedly had much to do with the development of the human 
mind ever since man first stood erect, and set free from foot work 
his fingers and their opposing thumb. One of the best methods of 
developing the minds of children is practice in the coordinated 
activities of the brain and the hand. If brain, eye, and hand are 
cooperating, the developing mental effect is increased; and the 
mental action and reaction is stronger still when eyes, ears, and 
hands, and the whole nervous system, the memory, and the dis- 
criminating judgment are at work together. 

The fundamental trades — such as those of the carpenter, mason, 
blacksmith, wheelwright, painter, hand leather-worker, and shoe- 
maker, have provided immensely valuable education for the human 
race, and have, indeed, been the chief means of raising barbarous 
peoples to a condition of approximate civiUzation. To-day the 
teaching of those trades, without much use of machinery, is the 
best mode of developing the natural powers of a backward people — 
like the North American Indians and the negroes. When a Hindu 
father transmits to his son not only his caste with all its privileges 
and its restrictions, but also his hand-trade — such, for example, as 
that of a goldsmith or a potter, he imparts to his son under a re- 
ligious sanction some of the most important elements in a sound 
education. East Indian civiHzation has been in great part trans- 
mitted in this way. The European guilds with their elaborate 
rules about apprenticeship contributed strongly for centuries to 
the education of the people through trades, before pubHc schools 



5 
and education for the masses through books and reading had been 
thought of. 

There have of course been civilizations which had but sHght 
foundations, apart from miUtary force, except a strong development 
of linguistic, philosophical, or theological studies; but even these 
civilizations have generally developed also to a high degree some 
fine art, like architecture, sculpture, or ceramic art, which requires 
keen observation and no little skill. Moreover, none of these civil- 
izations were so firmly founded as our own; for they had not at- 
tained to the scientific conception of truth, or to the inductive 
method of arriving at truth. It should be the great advantage of 
modern education that it has learnt to combine the training of the 
powers of observation with an accurate use of language and the 
best kind of memory work. 

In noble and rich families some training of the senses was ob- 
tained aU through feudal times; because the men were brought up 
to war and the chase, and the women not only shared in some de- 
gree the sports of the men, but acquired the manual skill which 
sewing, knitting, hanJ-vveaving, and embroidering demand. Even 
before the invention of gunpowder, success in war demanded the 
skihul use of trained senses in accurate and quick observation. 
Hunting and fishing have from the earUest times provided aU 
sorts and conditions of men with admirable training of alert senses. 

In respect to the training of their senses the children of well-to-do 
parents nowadays are often worse off than the children of the poor; 
because they are not called upon to perform services in the house- 
hold or on the farm which give practice in accurate observation 
and manual dexterity. 

The advent of mechanical power and machinery has greatly 
impaired the educational value of many trades; and this impair- 
ment has become so common that it may almost be called universal. 
The accurate joints a carpenter used to make by the careful use of 
his own eyes and hands are now made by machines almost without 
human intervention. The horseshoes which a blacksmith used to 
turn by hand on his anvil, and temper in his own little fire with an 
accurate appreciation of the changing tints of the hot metal, are 
now turned out by machinery by the hundred thousand, almost 
without touch of human hand or glance of human eye. Tending 
machinery is, as a rule, less instructive for the workman than hand- 



work of the old-fashioned sort, unless, indeed, the machine is com- 
plex^ and the product hable to imperfections. In that case the 
working of the machine must be closely watched by trained human 
senses. The ordinary uniformity of a machine product is due to 
invariabiUty in the action of the machine; and this invariabiUty is 
a main object from the point of view of the inventor or the propri- 
etor; but that same invariabiUty makes the tending of the machine 
of Utde use in the education of the human being that tends it — 
child, woman, or man. In certain mdustries a young man may 
learn in two or three days to make the few almost automatic move- 
ments which the right tending of his machine demands; and then 
may go on for years tending that same machine. Any ambitious or 
even prudent young man will try to escape as soon as possible from 
that sort of work. There is in it no training of the senses, no prog- 
ress, and no joy in work. 

The difference between a good workman and a poor one in farm- 
ing, mining, or manufacturing is the difference between the man 
who possesses well- trained senses and good judgment in using 
them, and the man who does not. The valuable farm-hand is the 
man that can drive a straight furrow with a plough and a pair of 
mules, or can follow accurately in parallel curves the contours of 
the land while ploughing. The good hand-fisherman is the man 
who can feel correctly what is going on at the fishhook out of sight, 
and can make his motor nerves react quickly to what he feels there. 
The successful hunter is the man who can not only organize a weU- 
devised drive, but can shoot surely the instant the game comes in 
sight. It is the blacksmith who has the sure touch with his hammer 
and the quick sight of the right tint on the heated drills who can 
sharpen three sets of quarryman's drills, while another man sharp- 
ens one. 

It follows from these considerations that the training of the 
senses should always have been a prime object in human education 
at every stage from primary to professional. That prime object 
it has never been, and is not to-day. The kind of education the 
modern world has inherited from ancient times was based chiefly 
■on literature. Its principal materials, besides some elementary 
mathematics, were sacred and profane writings, both prose and 
poetry, including descriptive narration, history, philosophy, and 



7 

religion; but accompanying this tradition of language and litera- 
ture was another highly useful transmission from ancient times — 
the study of the Fine Arts, with the many kinds of skill that are 
indispensable to artistic creation. Wherever in Europe the culti- 
vation of the Fine Arts has survived in vigor, there the varied skiU 
of the artist in music, painting, sculpture, and architecture has 
been a saving element in national education, although it affected 
strongly only a Umited number of persons. The English nation 
was less influenced by artistic culture than the nations of the 
continent, American secondary and higher education copied Eng- 
lish models, and were also injuriously affected by the Puritan, 
Genevan, Scotch-Presbyterian, and Quaker disdain for the Fine 
Arts. As a result the programmes of secondary schools in the 
United States allotted only an insignificant portion of school time 
to the cultivation of the perceptive power through music and draw- 
ing; and, until lately, boys and girls in secondary schools did not 
have their attention directed to the Fine Arts by any outside or 
voluntary organizations. As a rule, the young men admitted to 
American colleges can neither draw nor sing; and they possess no 
other skill of eye, ear, or hand. A high degree of skill in athletic 
sports is acquired only by exceptional persons; and the skill itself 
is of a coarser kind than that needed by the artist and the skilled 
workman. 

Since the middle of the eighteenth century a new element in the 
education of the white race has been developing, slowly for a hun- 
dred years but rapidly during the past fifty. This new element is 
physical, chemical, and biological science. Through the study of 
these subjects the medical profession has been revolutionized and 
several new professions of high value have been created — such as 
that of the chemist, of the engineer — civil, mechanical, electrical, 
or metallurgical — and of the forester. Through the radical work of 
great inventors and discoverers and of these new professions, all 
the large industries and transportation methods of the world, and 
therefore the commerce of the world, have been so changed that the 
producers and traders of times preceding 1850 would find, if they 
should revisit the scenes of their labors, that the processes by which 
they made their livings or their fortunes had completely disap- 
peared. This prodigious change should have instructed the 
makers of programmes for schools and colleges maintained by 



8 

nations which were undergoing this great revolution in regard to 
their means of livelihood; but for the most part professional educa- 
tors have been, and still are, blind to the necessity of a correspond- 
ing reformation or revision of the processes of education. 

There is one profession, however, in which the educational 
processes have been adequately changed, but only within recent 
years, namely — the profession of medicine. The reason for the 
comparatively early improvement of medical education is that the 
medical art has always depended for such measure of success as it 
attained on the physician's power of accurate observation, and 
his faculty of reasoning cautiously and soundly on the testimony 
which his senses gave him. From remotest times the successful 
physician has been by nature a naturalist. He saw and heard 
straight, and his touch gave him trustworthy information. He 
has still, and must always have, the naturalist's temperament, and 
he must possess the naturalist's trained senses. The reason that 
medicine and surgery have within twenty-five years made such 
astonishing progress is that the practitioner, possessing the senses 
and mental habits of the naturalist, has been suppHed through the 
progress of biological, chemical, and physical science with wonder- 
ful new means of accurate diagnosis. The training the medical 
student now receives is largely individual training in the use of 
his senses; and this training is given by experts in the use of their 
own eyes, ears, and hands in diagnosis and treatment. The just 
reasoning follows on the trustworthy observation. What has al- 
ready been done in medical education needs to be done in all other 
forms of education, whether for trades or for professions, whether 
for occupations chiefly manual or for those chiefly mental. 

The great increase of urban population at the expense of rural 
which has taken place during the past sixty years, with the ac- 
companying growth of factories and the crowding together of the 
working people and their famiUes, has resulted, so far as schools and 
colleges are concerned, in placing more children and youths than 
formerly under the influence of systematic education and keeping 
them there for a longer period; but this improvement has been ac- 
companied by a decline in the amount and quality of the sense- 
training which children and adolescents have received. An 
increasing proportion of children goes to the high schools, acade- 
mies, and colleges; but the farm now teaches but a small proportion 



9 

of the children born to the nation, and the urban family cannot 
train the children's senses in so effective and wholesome ways as 
the rural family could. In cities and large towns the trade which a 
boy chooses, or is assigned to, no longer demands for admission a 
prolonged apprenticeship. Machinery turns out an ample product 
without the need of much skilled labor. The general result is an 
inadequate training of the senses of the rising generation for accu- 
rate and quick observation. Unfortunately, the schools, which 
might have come to the rescue of the children, have for the most 
part clung to the traditional programmes which rely chiefly on 
studies that train the memory and the powers of discrimination and 
analysis, but do not drill. children in seeing and hearing correctly, in 
touching deftly and rapidly, and in drawing the right inferences 
from the testimony of their senses. 

In recent years, on account of the complexities, urgencies, and 
numerous accidents of urban life, there has been a striking revela- 
tion of the untrustworthiness of human testimony, not because 
witnesses intended to deceive, but because they were unable to see, 
hear, or describe accurately what reaUy happened in their presence. 
This is probably an old difl&culty; but it has been freshly brought to 
pubHc attention by the numerous cases of conflicting testimony 
developed in courts, and before commissions of inquiry, medical 
examiners, and police authorities. Indeed, in such investigations 
it is weU-nigh the rule that the testimony of the different witnesses 
not only presents many variations of detail, but is often discordant 
and even contradictory. The investigators have to rely chiefly, 
not on what the witnesses testify occurred at the moment, but on 
what careful observers can subsequently learn from the actual state 
of the wreck, and the condition of the dead, the wounded, and the 
more or less injured survivors. This inability to see, hear, and 
describe correctly is not at all confined to uneducated people. On 
the contrary, it is often found in men and women whose education 
has been prolonged and thorough, but never contained any sig- 
nificant element of sense-training. Many highly educated Ameri- 
can ministers, lawyers, and teachers have never received any 
scientific training, have never used any instnunent of precision, 
possess no manual skill whatever, and cannot draw, sing, or play 
on a musical instrument. Their entire education has dwelt in the 
region of language, Hterature, philosophy, and history, with limited 



10 

excursions into the field of mathematics. Many an elderly profes- 
sional man, looking back on his education and examining his own 
habits of thought and of expression, perceives that his senses were, 
never trained to act with precision, that his habits of thought 
permit vagueness, obscurity, and inaccuracy, and that his spoken 
or written statement lacks that measured, cautious, candid, 
simple quality which the scientific spirit fosters and inculcates. 
Such a deplorable result ought not to have been possible; but 
it has been unavoidable by the individual, whether child or 
parent, because the programmes of secondary schools still cUng 
almost exclusively to the memory subjects and the elements of 
mathematics, and college students are apt to adhere in college to 
the mental habits they acquired at school. The ordinary student 
does not venture into untried fields, because he feels more secure 
in the famiUar. 

If any one should ask — ^why has modern society got on as well as 
it has, if the great majority of its members have had an inadequate 
training in the use of their senses or no systematic training of that 
sort, the answer is that some voluntary agencies and some influ- 
ences which take strong effect on sections of the community have 
been at work to mitigate the evil. Such are, for example, athletic 
sports, travel, the use by city people of public parks and gardens, 
the practice of that alert watchfulness which the risks of crowded 
thoroughfares and of the dangerous industries compel, and the 
training of the senses which any man who practises well a manual 
trade obtains on the way. Many of the household arts also give a 
good training in the careful seeing and handhng which lead to accu- 
rate perception. The problem is now how to make systematic 
secondary education support and better these incidental influences, 
and how to coordinate sense-training with accurate reasoning and 
retentive memorizing. 

In urging the training of the senses, the educator must never 
lose sight of the fact that mental vigor does not necessarily result 
from bodily work alone, whether handwork or work in directing 
machines. Many persons work all their lives with a moderate 
amount of manual skill, who never develop any considerable 
faculty of discrimination or of sound judgment. Whole tribes 
and nations have done fine handwork for generations, and yet 
never developed intellectual superiority. If one had to choose 



II 

between training the senses and training the memory and the 
language powers, one would choose the latter; but both are indis- 
pensable to the best results in education. Neither depends for its 
educational value on imparting information; each supplies an indis- 
pensable discipline for the human intelligence. 

A survey of the programmes of the existing American secondary 
schools — ^pubHc, private, and endowed — would show that as a rule 
they pay Uttle attention to the training of the senses, and provide 
small opportunities for acquiring any skill of eye, ear, or hand, or 
any acquaintance with the accurate recording and cautious reason- 
ing which modem science prescribes. To make, or read, a complete 
survey of these programmes would be a duU and heavy task; but 
the demonstration needed for the purpose of the present essay can 
be readily given by analyzing the programmes of a few typical 
schools and academies. Such an analysis of the programmes and 
regulations of twelve different schools and one group of kindred 
schools is given in the Appendix, the general result being that the 
secondary schools are giving not more than from one tenth to one 
sixth of their force to observational, sense-training subjects. Any 
school superintendent, teacher, or committeeman can verify the 
results of this analysis in any secondary schools with which he is 
acquainted. 

The changes which ought to be made immediately in the pro- 
grammes of American secondary schools, in order to correct the 
glaring deficiencies of the present programmes, are chiefly: the 
introduction of more hand, ear, and eye work — such as drawing, 
carpentry, turning, music, sewing, and cooking, and the giving of 
much more time to the sciences of observation — chemistry, physics, 
biology, and geography — not political, but geological and ethno- 
graphical geography. These sciences should be taught in the most 
concrete manner possible — that is in laboratories with ample ex- 
perimenting done by the individual pupil with his own eyes and 
hands, and in the field through the pupil's own observation guided 
by expert leaders. In secondary schools situated in the country 
the elements of agriculture should have an important place in the 
programme, and the pupils should all work in the school gardens 
and experimental plots, both individually and in cooperation with 



12 

Others. In city schools a manual training should be given which 
would prepare a boy for any one of many different trades, not by 
familiarizing him with the details of actual work in any trade, but 
by giving him an all-round bodily vigor, a nervous system capable 
of multiform coordinated efforts, a Uking for doing his best in 
competition with mates, and a widely appHcable skill of eye and 
hand. Again, music should be given a substantial place in the 
programme of every secondary school, in order that all the pupils 
may learn musical notation, and may get much practice in reading 
music and in singing. Drawing, both freehand and mechanical, 
should be given ample time in every secondary school programme; 
because it is an admirable mode of expression which supplements 
language and is often to be preferred to it, lies at the foundation of 
excellence in many arts and trades, affords simultaneously good 
training for both eye and hand, and gives much enjoyment through- 
out life to the possessor of even a moderate amount of skill. 

Drawing and music, like other Fine Art studies, were regarded 
by the Puritan settlers of New England and by all their social and 
rehgious kindred as superfluities, which, if not positively evil, were 
still of wasteful or harmful tendency, and were, therefore, to be 
kept out of every course of education. By many teachers and edu- 
cational administrators music and drawing are still regarded as fads 
or trivial accomplishments not worthy to rank as substantial edu- 
cational material; whereas, they are important features in the out- 
fit of every human being who means to be cultivated, efl&cient, and 
rationally happy. In consequence, many native Americans have 
grown up without musical faculty and without any power to draw 
or sketch, and so without the high capacity for enjoyment, and for 
giving joy, which even a moderate acquaintance with these arts 
imparts. This is a disaster which has much diminished the happi- 
ness of the native American stock. It is high time that the Ameri- 
can school — urban or rural, mechanical, commercial, or classical, 
pubhc, private, or endowed — set earnestly to work to repair this 
great loss and damage. Although considerable improvements have 
been recently made in the programmes of American secondary 
schools, especially within the past ten years or since vocational 
training has been much discussed, multitudes of Americans con- 
tinue to regard the sense-training subjects as fads and superfluities. 
They say: the pubHc elementary schools should teach thoroughly 



13 

reading, writing, spelling, and arithmetic, and let natural science, 
drawing, music, domestic arts and crafts, and manual training 
severely alone. Let the secondary schools teach thoroughly Eng- 
lish, Latin, American history, and mathematics, with a dash of 
economics and civics, and cease to encumber their programmes with 
bits of the new sciences and the new sociology. This doctrine is 
dangerously conservative; for it would restrict the rising gener- 
ations to memory studies, and give them no real acquaintance with 
the sciences and arts which within a hundred years have revolution- 
ized all the industries of the white race, modified profoundly all the 
political and ethical conceptions of the freedom-loving peoples, and 
added wonderfully to the productive capacity of Europe and 
America. 

If any one asks how it can be possible that these new subjects, all 
time-consuming, should be introduced into the existing secondary 
schools of the United States, the answer — adequate, though not 
easy to put into practice — is, first, that the memory subjects and 
the mathematics should be somewhat reduced as regards number of 
assigned periods in the week; secondly, that afternoon hours should 
be utilized, or, in other words, that the school day should be 
lengthened; and thirdly, that the long summer vacation should be 
reduced. It is worse than absurd to turn city children into the 
streets for more than two months every summer. Since the new 
subjects all require bodily as well as mental exertion, they can be 
added to the memory subjects without any risk to the health of the 
children, provided that the shops, laboratories, and exercising rooms 
be kept cool and well ventilated. In rural schools a good part of the 
new work in sowing, planting, cultivating the ground, and harvest- 
ing must be done out of doors. The observational, manual, and 
scientific subjects often awaken in a boy or young man for the first 
time an intellectual interest and zeal in work which memory studies 
have never stirred. Hand and eye work often develops a power of 
concentrated attention which book work had failed to produce, but 
which can be transferred to book work when once created. All 
the new subjects require vigorous and constant use of the memory, 
and give much practice in exact recording, and in drawing only the 
limited and legitimate inference from the recorded facts. 

If the educational material and the method of instruction were 
right, the training given in the grades would be just as good for the 



14 

children who leave school at fourteen as for those who go on till 
eighteen, and the training in the high school would be equally ap- 
propriate for pupils who do not go to college and for those who do. 
The progressive sense-training from beginning to end of system- 
atic education is desirable for all pupils, whatever their destinations 
in after Hfe, and should prepare every pupil for his best entrance on 
earning a UveUhood, at whatever age that necessity is to come upon 
him. It should be the same with the language and history studies 
in every pubUc school programme. At every stage, or in every 
grade, they should be suitable for every pupil no matter what his 
destination. Flexibility and adaptation to individual needs would 
still be necessary in the programmes, first, in order to enable the 
individual pupil to concentrate on the studies he prefers and excels 
in, and, secondly, to enable pupils of different capacity to advance 
at different rates. The adoption of these principles would solve 
justly problems in the American tax-supported system of pubUc 
education which have been in debate for generations. 

Every school plant, whether in city or country, should be used, 
not only by the regular pupils between the hours of eight or half- 
past eight and four or half-past four, but by older youths and 
adults at hours outside the working time in the prevaihng indus- 
tries of the town or city where the school is situated. Many 
efforts are now being made to introduce continuation schools and 
to develop evening schools; but these efforts should become univer- 
sal, and should result speedily in a large extension of the American 
pubUc school system. Moreover, the fundamental object of the 
proposed changes in the programmes should be distinctly recog- 
nized — the better training of the senses. 

The suggested changes in American school programmes will not 
make pubUc school hfe harder or more fatiguing for the pupils. 
On the contrary, observational study and concrete teaching are 
more interesting to both children and adults than memory study of 
any sort; and whenever the interest of pupils is aroused it brings 
out more concentrated attention and harder work, but causes less 
fatigue. The obvious utihty of mental labor directed to a practical 
end increases the interest the pupils take in their work, and stimu- 
lates them to effective effort. To use a good tool or machine, and 
get the results it is competent to produce when in skilful hands, is 
vastly more interesting than reading or hearing about the uses of 



IS 

such a tool or machine. Whenever by the use of observational 
and concrete methods the pupils' power of attention and of con- 
centrated effort is developed, that power of attention once ac- 
quired can be exercised in other subjects. This principle holds 
true not only of manual or bodily labor, but also of games and 
sports, and of cooperation in rhythmical movements Uke dancing. 
The power of concentrated attention won in carpentry, turning, 
forging, or farm work is easily transferred to work in reading, 
writing, and ciphering, or at a later stage in history, Uterature, and 
civics; so that the reduction in the so-called academic studies made 
to allow the introduction of observational studies need not result 
in less attainment in the academic studies themselves. 

These changes will all add to the annual cost of the schools, be- 
cause much of the new instruction must be given to the individual 
pupil, treated by himself, and not as a member of a numerous class. 
In short, the example of the modern medical school, which needs to 
be imitated in all schools, teaches that good training of the senses 
is more costly than the ancient classwork with books and lectures. 
The cost of town and city school systems will be also increased by 
the necessity of employing a larger number of teachers, if the 
schools are to be kept at work evenings, as well as daytimes, and 
during forty-six weeks of the year instead of forty-one. Indeed, 
the chief item in the increased cost in city schools, consequent on 
the introduction of sense-training and observational studies, would 
be in the salary list. More teachers would be required and a larger 
proportion of them would be men. The new teachers would be 
good mechanics, well-trained laboratory assistants, and naturaUsts 
competent to teach botany, zoology, and geology on walks and ex- 
cursions with the pupils. To provide these teachers in sufficient 
numbers, the programmes of normal schools would need to be 
considerably modified; so that it would probably be necessary to 
wait for the production of an adequate number of teachers compe- 
tent to give the new kinds of instruction. The prime object being 
to give all pupils a correct conception of the modern scientific 
method, and sound practice in using it, the teachers themselves 
must understand that method, and be bred to its constant use. It 
is possible to deaden any subject as a means of mental training, and 
science and the Fine Arts just as easily as the classics, history, 
geography, or arithmetic. It is quite possible to teach observa- 



i6 

tional subjects in a memoriter, unreasoning way, and without im- 
parting the essential moraUties of freedom and brotherhood. Such 
teaching would defeat the object of the proposed reform. On the 
other hand, some of the traditional subjects may be taught in a 
concrete way, which really enlarges the field of observational study, 
when once the pupil has mastered the observational method in 
regions within sight and touch; just as printed cases in medical 
practice which give all the symptoms and facts in each case may be 
used to supplement bedside study of actual patients. The printed 
cases would be of no use to students who had never seen an actual 
case, or had never themselves made up the record of an actual case 
for the use of the visiting physician. So when pupils in a secondary 
school have once mastered a portion of the history of their own 
country by the study of personages, places, pictures, speeches, 
charts, and diagrams, they can safely use their imaginations to 
clothe and vivify the history of other times and peoples, and par- 
ticularly the biographies of famous men. This is a legitimate 
enlargement of a true observational method. By mixing geometry 
with arithmetic and with algebra the teaching of elementary mathe- 
matics may be much enlivened, the concrete illustrations appre- 
hended by sight or touch vivifying the abstract numbers or 
quantities. 

For this great improvement in the conduct of American second- 
ary schools a good deal of preparation has already been made. 
The new schools of Mechanic Arts, the Trade Schools, the various 
endowed Institutes for giving a sound training in applied science, 
and such institutions as Hampton Institute and Tuskegee Institute 
are showing how to learn by actual seeing, hearing, touching, and 
doing, instead of by reading and committing to memory. They 
have proved that the mental powers, as well as the bodily powers, 
are strongly developed by the kind of instruction they give; so that 
nobody need apprehend that reduced attention to memory subjects, 
with increased attention to the training of the senses, the muscles, 
and the nerves will result in a smaller capacity for sound thinking 
and for the exercise of an animating good-will. 

There has not infrequently been much disappointment as to the 
eflfect on the mental powers of the pupils of the new courses in scien- 
tific subjects and the new instruction in drawing, carpentry, forging, 



17 

moulding, and so forth, which have already been introduced into 
American secondary schools. The reason for these disappoint- 
ments is the imperfect manner in which the new instruction has 
been given. It is indispensable to success with the new subjects 
that the pupils should use their own eyes, ears, and hands, and 
themselves describe and coordinate their own observations. In 
the study of their own results they must apply their own powers of 
discrimination, memory, and expression. It is the combined action 
of senses, reasoning, and memory, which alone gives the true result 
in the pupil. The real educational use of any concrete experience 
requires reflection on its significance, and finally the firm holding in 
the memory of the results of both observation and reflection. 

It is not the secondary school alone which needs to be reformed 
— the elementary school needs to set a different standard of attain- 
ment, not lower or easier, but rather higher and harder — a standard 
in which the training of the senses shall be an important element. 
If the new secondary schools are to accomplish their rational ob- 
jects, they must rest on new elementary schools which utilize the 
spontaneous aptitudes of childhood — for the acquisition of modern 
languages, for example. As to the American college, it may be said 
to have already abandoned the traditional four years' programme 
of linguistic, literary, and mathematical studies with a dash of his- 
tory and philosophy; and many colleges now require for admission 
the elements of some scientific subject. As a whole, the colleges 
have already begun to attend to the training of the senses by in- 
troducing a considerable variety of elective courses in science; 
but the changes already introduced do not afford the mass of the 
students adequate opportunities to remedy the deficiencies in the 
training they received in their schools. Moreover, to begin that 
systematic training of the senses at the college age is not the most 
advantageous arrangement. 

If the elementary and secondary schools served well boys and 
girls from six to eighteen years of age, the main reform would in 
time be accomphshed. It is but a small percentage of the youth of 
the country that go to the colleges and the higher technical schools; 
and the parents of this small percentage are often able to provide 
their children with opportunities for securing, outside of their 
systematic education, a well-coordinated use of all their senses and 
nerves — such as a violinist, organist, pilot, locomotive engineer, 



i8 

or sharpshooter requires. The educational publicist must keep 
in mind the interests of the 95 per cent, of the children, rather than 
those of the 5 per cent.; for it is on the wise treatment of the mass 
of the population during youth that a modern democracy must rely 
for assuring the public health, prosperity, and happiness. 

It must not be imagined that any advocate of more sense- 
training in education expects to see diminished the exercise of the 
reasoning powers or of the motive powers which distinguish Man 
from the other animals, or to see impaired Man's faith in the spirit- 
ual unity of the world, or his sense of duty toward fellowmen, or 
his active sympathy with them. The devotees of natural and 
physical science during the last hundred and fifty years have not 
shown themselves inferior to any other class of men in their power 
to reason and to will, and have shown themselves superior to any 
other class of men in respect to the value or worth to society of the 
product of those powers. The men who, since the nineteenth cen- 
tury began, have done most for the human race through the right 
use of their reasons, imaginations, and wills are the men of science, 
the artists, and the skilled craftsmen, not the metaphysicians, the 
orators, the historians, or the rulers. In modern times the most 
beneficent of the rulers have been men who shared in some degree 
the new scientific spirit; and the same is true of the metaphysicians. 
As to the real poets, teachers of reUgion, and other men of genius, 
their best work has the scientific quality of precision and truthful- 
ness; and their rhetorical or oratorical work is only their second 
best. The best poetry of the last three centuries perfectly illus- 
trates this general truth. Shakespeare wrote: 

"I know a bank whereon the wild thyme grows." 

The florists now tell us that thyme will not thrive except on a bank. 
George Herbert wrote: 

" Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright; 
The bridal of the earth and sky. 
The dews shall weep thy fall to-night, 
For thou must die." 

Precision of statement could not go further; thought and word are 
perfectly accurate. Emerson said to the rhodora: 

"The self-same power that brought me here, brought you." 



19 
A more accurate description of the universal Providence could not 
be given. Even martial poetry often possesses the same absolute 
accuracy: 

"Oh! Tiber, Father Tiber, 
To whom the Romans pray, 
A Roman's life, a Roman's arms, 
Take thou in charge this day!" 

"Cannon to right of them. 
Cannon to left of them, 
Volleyed and thundered, 
Into the jaws of Death 
Rode the six hundred." 

When human emotions are to be stirred, and human wills inspired, 
it is the simple, convincing statement which moves most, and lasts 
longest: 

"Greater love hath no man than this: that 

a man lay down his life for his friends." 

The most exact, complete, satisfying, and influential description of 
true neighborUness in all literature is the parable of the Good 
Samaritan: 

"Which of these three, thinkest thou, proved neighbor 
unto him that fell among the robbers? And he said, 
He that showed mercy on him. And Jesus said unto him, 
Go, and do thou likewise." 

It is an important lesson to be drawn from the Great War that 
under the passionate excitements and tremendous strains of the 
wide-spread disaster, the medical profession and the nurses of all 
countries are holding firmly to that exact definition of the neighbor, 
and are obeying strictly the command, " Do thou Hkewise." These 
are men and women who have received thorough training of the 
senses without suffering any loss of quick sympathy or of humane 
devotion. 

Rhetorical exaggeration, paradox, hyperbole, and rhapsody 
doubtless have their uses in moving to immediate action masses of 
ordinary men and women; but they are not the finest weapons of the 
teacher and moralist: 

"Speaks for itself the fact. 
As unrelenting Nature leaves 
Her every act!" 



20 

APPENDIX 

The proportion of attention given to observational and scientific 
subjects in secondary schools in comparison with that given to 
linguistic, literary, mathematical, and historical subjects, may be 
illustrated by analysis of the programmes of a few typical schools. 

In a New York high school which maintains the traditional four 
years' high school course, and a course intended to prepare for com- 
mercial work, the number of recitation periods offered in the four 
years are respectively 21, 25, 25, and 35 — a. total of 106; and out of 
these 106 periods each pupil is required to attend 72 periods, being 
18 periods per week throughout the four years. The number of 
options is small during the first three years, but large in the fourth 
year. Out of these 106 periods, 24 had some possible element of 
observational work; but these could aU be avoided by any pupil who 
wished to do so, unless, indeed, the pupil was hoping to enter a 
college which demanded the elements of some one science for ad- 
mission. There were in the school no laboratories for physics, 
chemistry, or biology. The commercial course contained only 
77I periods, of which 72 were required. Of the 77I periods, 10 had 
possibly, but not necessarily, some element of observational work. 
This school has lately come into possession of a new building which 
contains well-equipped laboratories for physics, chemistry, and 
biology, and is this year (1915-16) offering for the first time a note- 
worthy course in agriculture which includes 13 periods of English, 
10 of history, and 10 of mathematics, but also 10 for science and 30 
for agriculture, including laboratory and shop work, field trips, 
project work at home, and classroom work. The instructor for 
agriculture is engaged for the entire year, and wiU spend his summer 
with the boys who pursue the Agricultural Course. 

In an excellent high school in an important western city there 
were in 1914-15 34 teachers who gave full time on the weekly pro- 
gramme of the school, of whom 

I taught physics with the laboratory method 

I chemistry with the laboratory method 

1 zoology and physiology with the laboratory method 

2 mechanical drawing and manual arts, and 
I free-hand drawing. 



21 

Thus, about one sixth of the actual teaching force was teaching sub- 
jects which might fairly be called observational. This school main- 
tains a '^ Normal Course" which requires a good two years* course 
in free-hand drawing, given five days in the week, for forty minutes 
a day. There being no prescribed outUne of work in music, the dif- 
ferent high schools in this city make out each its own course in 
music. One of them maintains an excellent course in music cover- 
ing the first two years out of the four; but the high school, the 
composition of whose staff is partially analyzed above, gave no 
course in music because of lack of accommodations. In general, a 
course in music is required of pupils in this city only if they select 
that high school course which is called the "Normal Course." 
Free-hand drawing is not required except in the "Normal Course." 
Since the city provides in its high schools more instruction than any 
one pupil can take, it is possible for pupils to graduate creditably 
from a high school without having devoted even one sixth of their 
time to observational studies. 

In another large western city the high schools provide seven 
different courses, among which each pupil chooses one. In three 
of these courses memory studies have the usual preponderance; but 
in the other four, called Art, Manual Training, Domestic Art and 
Science, and Commercial, there is an unusual proportion of obser- 
vational or vocational studies. The city spends money Uberally 
in its high schools for instruction in drawing — both free-hand and 
mechanical — manual training including joinery, turning, pattern- 
making, moulding, forging, and the domestic arts and sciences, 
knowledge of which is especially desirable for girls, and in botany, 
physiology, physics, and chemistry. Botany and physiology are 
only half-year subjects. AU science subjects have five periods each 
per week, usually divided into three recitations and one double 
laboratory period. In the Art Course, art drawing is required dur- 
ing the four years, and is given in double periods each second day. 

In the course called Classical, the proportion of observational 
studies accessible to the pupil is very small; but in the courses 
called Art, Manual Training, and Domestic Art and Science it is 
fairly large, while in the courses called General and Scientific the 
proportion of observational studies is identical, and approaches 
one sixth of the total time demanded from the pupils by either of 



22 

these courses. In the course called Scientific of the 20 units 
required for graduation, 4, or one fifth of the whole, must be in sci- 
ence. In the General Course, 18 units being required for grad- 
uation, 2 must be in science; and these 2 may be increased to 3 or 4 
— that is, one ninth of the total number is required for science; and 
this proportion may be increased by election to one sixth or even 
to two ninths. 

Music in these schools consists of chorus singing taught for two 
periods a week for four years; but music is not enumerated among 
the studies of the schools, being regarded as extra or outside the 
regular programme. The word music does not occur in the printed 
programmes of the seven courses. Art Drawing, Mechanical 
Drawing, Manual Training, and Domestic Art and Science require 
but Httle preparatory study in connection with the work done in 
the periods assigned to these subjects on the programmes. Physics, 
physiology, chemistry, and physiography require preparatory 
study, but not so much as the language studies and the mathe- 
matical. It has been proved in the high schools of this city that 
girls devote more time than boys do to study in preparation for the 
recitation periods of the high school programmes. 

In an old secondary school maintained wholly at public expense, 
and devoted for many years to classical learning, the present 
Course of Study includes the following observational studies: In 
the first year 2 periods a week in elementary science and 2 in 
physical training — these two subjects together having 4 out of 25 
periods per week, and being represented in the second and third 
years in the same proportion. In the fourth and fifth years there 
is no scientific study whatever. In the sixth and last year of the 
course physics has 5 periods out of the 25, with lecture demonstra- 
tions and laboratory work throughout the year. In the last four 
years of the course the physical training consists exclusively of mil- 
itary drill — that is, the setting-up drill, the manual of arms, march- 
ing, and company and battalion movements. In all the physical 
training given at this school there is hardly any training of the pow- 
ers of observation. Neither music nor drawing is a subject of 
instruction. Laboratory work in the elementary science of the 
first year and in sixth-year physics occupies about half of the time 
allotted to those subjects in the programme; but many pupils who 



23 

are proposing to go to college give additional time to the laboratory 
study of physics. 

A public school situated in a New England city combines a well- 
developed EngUsh High School Course with an equally well-devel- 
oped Classical Course intended to prepare boys and girls for admis- 
sion to colleges of high standing. This school teaches physiology, 
chemistry, and physics partly by the laboratory method, and is 
well equipped for such work. It also gives much instruction in 
penmanship, stenography, and typewriting, but chiefly for pupils 
who take the Commercial Course. Drawing is an elective study 
open to all pupils, ordinarily for two periods (of forty-five minutes 
each) a week. Physical training is an elective subject open to all 
girls for two periods a week, but not to boys. The school main- 
tains two large chorus classes, and an orchestra of about fifty pieces, 
each meeting once a week. There is a class in Harmony which 
meets twice a week. The Boys' Glee Club and the Girls' Glee 
Club meet outside of the school. All music work is elective, but 
is under the personal supervision of the Director of Music em- 
ployed by the School Committee. The school does not provide 
any form of manual training; perhaps because it has an alliance 
with a Technical School close by. 

On account of the many kinds of pupil in this school, and of the 
large volume of instruction ne'eded to meet their various wants, the 
best way to estimate the proportion of the school's energy which 
goes into the teaching of observational and scientific subjects is to 
compare the number of teachers employed in the school for those 
subjects with the number employed for the languages and litera- 
tures, and for history, civics, and mathematics. 

There are 79 teachers, of whom 13 are men. Out of these 79, 
12 teach subjects which may be said to include a considerable pro- 
portion of training of the senses — namely, drawing, physiology, 
chemistry, physics, and physical culture. Of these 12, 2 are men 
giving full-time, and i is the Musical Director, who gives 5 hours 
a week. One female teacher gives only part of her time to a sub- 
ject belonging in this category — physiology. Another, a teacher 
of physiology, gives part of her time to a commercial subject. It 
appears, therefore, that 15^ per cent, of the School's energy goes 
into the teaching of subjects of an observational and scientific 



24 

quality, and 84^ per cent, into instruction in languages, litera- 
ture, mathematics, history, and civics. The individual pupil may 
devote either somewhat more or somewhat less than 15 per cent, 
of his attention to observational and scientific subjects. 

In an old New England academy the prescribed studies are ex- 
clusively linguistic and mathematical with the following exceptions 
— a course in physical training which requires four hours a week 
throughout the Academy Course, and courses in physics, chemistry, 
and drawing, which are optional studies open to the two upper 
classes only. Languages — ancient and modern — and elementary 
mathematics occupy the great majority of the teachers, and al- 
most all the time of the ordinary pupil. Regular instruction in 
music is, however, provided for members of the glee club and the 
chapel choir and of the mandoHn club and the orchestra. The 
study of music, however, is completely voluntary and outside of the 
regular course of the academy. In 1914-15, 32 teachers were 
employed in this academy, three of whom were devoted to the 
teaching of physics and chemistry, and two to the instruction in 
physical training. This academy maintains laboratories for 
physics, chemistry, and mechanical drawing, and allows the pupils 
in these subjects to devote two hours twice a week to laboratory- 
work in these subjects. The voluntary instruction in music — 
both vocal and instrumental — is given one evening a week for 
about seven months; but much more time is given to music by in- 
dividual pupils. An examination is required for admission to any 
one of the musical clubs. Membership in these clubs is considered 
an honor, and regularity of attendance at their rehearsals is strictly 
enforced. 

Another endowed academy in New England maintains two 
courses of study — one called the Classical, the other the Scientific. 
In the Classical Course no observational subject whatever finds 
place, except optional physics and chemistry, each four periods a 
week in the senior year, and optional mechanical drawing for two 
periods a week in the senior year. The Scientific Course makes 
chemistry and physics elective one year earher than the Classical, 
and therefore perhaps permits the pupils who elect it to advance 
farther in these two subjects. This academy possesses labora- 



25 

tories for physics and chemistry, and teaches both these subjects 
by the laboratory method. Opportunity is offered for the study of 
piano, organ, and harmony; but this instruction does not make 
part of any Course of Study maintained by the academy. The 
subject of drawing other than mechanical drawing is not mentioned 
either in the Course of Study or in the elaborate Constitution of 
this academy. Memory subjects have an overwhelming prepon- 
derance over observational. 

In a good, partially endowed. New England school which is in- 
tended for sons of well-to-do people, the total number of recitation 
hours contained in the six years' programme of studies is 185, of 
which only 28 contain an element of observational work; and to 
arrive at this figure 28, there must be included in it all the hours 
given to physical training, namely, 12, and one hour a week given 
in the two earhest years to singing. Of the other 14 hours, 5 are 
devoted to manual training, 5 to physics, and 4 to chemistry, 
physics being a required study and chemistry an alternative for 
Greek. In this school nearly the whole weight of instruction is 
appUed to languages, mathematics, and to a moderate proportion 
of historical teaching in which is included the history of Enghsh 
literature. 

In another similar, preparatory school, also partially endowed, 
four distinct courses are maintained in each of the four years. One 
of these is called the Scientific Course, because it is intended to pre- 
pare candidates for admission to a Scientific School rather than to 
a College. This course prescribes a little more science in the 
lower middle (second) and senior years than any one of the other 
three courses, but out of its 79 periods of recitation in the four 
years, only 7 are devoted to science of any sort. All the rest are 
given to languages, history, and elementary' mathematics. No 
drawing is taught in the school, and no music except during one 
hour a week for those pupils who desire it — about one fifth of the 
whole number. 

In an excellent private school for boys, situated in New England, 
the five years' Course of Study shows a small proportion of expendi- 
ture for instruction in observational and scientific subjects. In- 



26 

struction is provided for 139 periods a week of 40 minutes each. 
Out of these only 16 periods are devoted to observational and 
scientific subjects all put together, being 11^ per cent, of the total 
instruction offered. Out of 11 teachers, 2 or i8| per cent, give 
their whole attention to manual training, sloyd, drawing, physics, 
and chemistry; and these teachers are provided with facihties for 
teaching carpentry, wood-carving, basketry, metal-work, and clay- 
modelling, and with well-equipped laboratories for teaching physics 
and chemistry. The school also pays unusual attention to system- 
atic athletic sports and exercises under careful supervision. It 
should be mentioned also that the spirit of the teaching in such 
subjects as languages and geometry is unusually observational, and 
the methods as far as possible inductive and concrete. It is one of 
the very few schools in the country which provides in its Junior 
Department of two preliminary years (not included in this state- 
ment) a teacher who takes the younger boys on observational 
walks in the country, and older boys on trips to commercial plants 
where the practical applications of physics and chemistry in the 
industrial arts may be seen. The school building contains a gym- 
nasium; but the school puts its emphasis on out-of-door exercises 
in winter as well as in spring and fall, and to carry out this poHcy 
has a good Field and a well-equipped Field-house. In its Course 
of Study and its announcement for 1914-15 the word music does 
not occur except as one subject among many for ten-minute morn- 
ing talks. Like some other schools mentioned in this Appendix, 
this school has made significant improvements in its programme for 
1915-16. 

In a good private secondary school for the sons of well-to-do 
families, recently organized and partially endowed in a New Eng- 
land town, there are 6 classes or years which exhibit varying per- 
centages of observational studies. For the youngest, or Class VI, 
science has 3 periods out of 25 provided. In Class V pohtical 
geography is the only subject that could be called scientific; and 
this subject has 2 periods out of 25. In Class IV science, which is 
physiology and hygiene, is assigned 2 periods out of 19. In the 
three classes already mentioned manual training is provided for 2 
periods a week, and music is taught for i period; but for these 
periods no previous preparation by study or practice is required of 



27 

the pupils. In Class III forestry replaces the manual training; and 
no other science appears in the work of the year. In Class II 
physics, with 4 periods and 2 hours of laboratory work, is offered 
a^ an alternative for Latin with 5 periods; and elective science is 
offered for 2 periods more. Manual training for 2 periods reap- 
pears in the programme of this year; and the i period for music is 
continued. For Class II the school offers instruction covering 37 
periods, of which chemistry and physics have each 4 periods with 
2 hours of laboratory work in each. There is an option between 
these two subjects. Two periods are given to manual training and 

1 to music, as before. One period a week is given to music in every 
one of the 6 years of this school. The boys are taught first to read 
music, and then are trained in part singing. Incidentally they 
learn a little about harmony, and about the technique and the 
various forms of musical composition. In the first class (last year) 
appreciation of music is taught in connection with the study of 
famous works. The school also provides teaching for two glee 
clubs and the school chorus, which are voluntary pupil organiza- 
tions. In the final year (Class I) each pupil selects from the 37 
periods of instruction, with the advice and approval of the head- 
master, a course of study suited to his own needs, the amount of 
instruction provided by the school being at least twice as much as 
any single pupil can advantageously take. 

In an excellent secondary school for girls, situated in New 
England, the whole course is divided into 8 classes, each of which 
has some instruction in sight-singing, the use of the voice in reading 
and speaking, and gymnastics. In the first year, or Class I, of the 
school, and out of a total of 19 periods in the week, one period is de- 
voted to elementary science, without the use of any text-book; and 

2 periods are devoted to drawing, color work, and writing. In the 
next year of the school, Class II, out of 21 periods, one period is de- 
voted to botany, and 2 periods for hah the year to physical geog- 
raphy; and the time devoted to drawing, color work, and writing 
is the same as in the first year. In the third year, Class III, out 
of 21 periods, one is given to the elements of zoology, no text-book 
being used; and 3 periods are devoted to sewing, stencilling, and 
color work. In the fourth year. Class IV, instruction is given in 
the elements of domestic economy, cooking, leather work, and color 



28 

work, and 4 periods are used for these subjects; but leather work 
and color work are elective subjects. In the fifth year, Class V, 
color work, copying at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, carving 
and drawing are taught as elective subjects each for one period; but 
the copying at the Art Museum is done in the afternoon, outside of 
school hours. This special opportunity at the Museum may be 
used once a week in the afternoon in each of four years of the pro- 
gramme. In the sixth year, Class VI, 3 periods out of 29 are used 
for general science, and of the 29 periods, 5 are assigned to elective 
Greek. In the seventh year. Class VII, out of 37I periods, 2 periods 
are assigned to physiology and 3 to chemistry as elective studies; 
and Greek is again elective for 5 periods. The pupil may not take 
5 hours of science in Class VII. In the eighth and last year of the 
regular programme. Class VIII, out of 54 periods of instruction 
provided by the school, a large majority of which are elective, the 
pupil may, if she wish, devote 3 hours to physiology, 7 to chemistry, 
2 to drawing, and 3 to music, thus giving a large part of her time to 
observational studies. Such a course would not, however, lead to a 
diploma, since with 15 hours given to observational work most 
pupils would find it impossible to meet the requirements of the 
school in regard to history and language. The number of recita- 
tion periods for members of the older classes averages 18 a week. 

This school employs 8 room teachers, all of whom teach subjects 
not observational, and 31 department teachers, not all of whom 
give full time. Of the department teachers, 2 teach science, prop- 
erly so-called, 2 teach musical subjects, 3 artistic subjects, and 7 
teach various forms of household economics, games, or sports, and 
gymnastics. Approximately, one third of the teaching force is em- 
ployed on observational, scientific, or skill subjects. 

The excellent building of this school contains, besides the ordinary 
classrooms and recitation-rooms, six music-rooms, three labora- 
tories, two play-rooms, a gymnasium with a stage suitable for con- 
certs, tableaux, and plays, a swimming-pool, drawing- and wood- 
carving-rooms, a studio, and a domestic-science kitchen. This fact, 
as well as the varied instruction provided, shows that the school 
pays unusual attention to observational studies and to the acquisi- 
tion by nearly every pupil of some sort of bodily skill. 

The manual training or technical schools of the country, in the 



1^^ COl 

f the 



V 



29 

secondary grade, generally retain in their courses a considerable 
amount of what is called academic work — that is, instruction in 
languages, history, and mathematics — but their programmes con- 
tain a large proportion of studies which may properly be called 
observational, such as carpentry, printing, music — both vocal and 
instrumental — drawing — both mechanical and free-hand — pattern- 
making, forging, chemistry, and physics. These schools offer a 
course in elementary science which gives a general view of science, 
and is provided for the purpose of arousing the interest of the pupils 
in the scientific method and its fruits. They usually offer a variety 
of industrial courses — such as courses in which printing, free-hand 
drawing, mechanical drawing, electricity, wood-working, or iron- 
working is the leading subject; and these courses naturally vary 
considerably in regard to the observational studies selected for each 
course. In all such courses the proportion of elective subjects is 
■ger than in the ordinary high schools and academies; and the 
servatlonal studies are apt to appear in the list of electives, al- 
though sorie of them frequently appear in the list of required 
studies. On the whole, the usual predominance of memory sub- 
jects disappears in the programmes of these schools, doubtless for 
the reason that they really attempt to prepare boys for specified 
industrial careers. For decided success in any good, modern trade 
or industry, a reasonable amount of sense-training is almost indis- 
pensable. In all such schools chemistry and physics are taught 
with some use of the laboratory method. Drawing — both mechan- 
ical and free-hand — has its proper place in the appropriate pro- 
jTammes of technical schools, and through it an invaluable training 
of both eye and hand can be acquired. Some of these schools pay 
more attention to music than the average high school; although the 
work in music is generally elective. In order to give time for work- 
ing in the shops and laboratories, these schools usually extend the 
school day at least two hours into the afternoon without objection 
on the part of the pupils, because the value of the shop and labora- 
tory work is as plain to them as it is to the teachers. 



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